The New York Times editorial page weighed in yesterday on a suit to block a law that ends New York’s practice of counting prison inmates at their prison-homes when it comes to drawing electoral districts. The Times calls it prison gerrymandering:

…the cynical practice of counting prison inmates as “residents” to pad the population of legislative districts.

It’s “all about self interest,” says the Times. Principle beneficiary and lead plaintiff is state Sen. Betty Little of Queensbury:

…whose upstate district contains 11 state correctional institutions, one federal prison and an estimated 12,000 inmates. According to an analysis by the Prison Policy Initiative, a research group based in Massachusetts, Senator Little’s current district is one of seven in New York that meet federal population requirements by counting inmates as residents.

I agree that prisoners should not be counted as residents of the districts in which they are imprisoned. I also believe that college students should not be allowed to vote in local elections simply because they go to school in the locality.

College students are “here” by choice, prisoners aren’t. And it’s not enough to say the Census counts people where they live at the time of the Census. How do you define “live?” Certainly not by where someone “is” at the time of the Census — because many people are away from their homes — where they live — at the time of the Census, and many of them are away for long stretches. Yet they are counted where they “live” — their homes — not where they are, wherever that may be.